The crowd is seen cheering at Grooving the Moo in Adelaide, Friday, April 27, 2018. Picture: AAP

Health

NZ police back pill testing, debate rages in Australia

by Natasha Christian

4th Jan 2019 11:26 AM
premium_icon
Subscriber only

AS Australia's politicians, scientists and health experts are caught in a fiery debate over whether or not to allow pill testing at music festivals, New Zealand's Police Minister said he thinks it's the way to go to prevent any more deaths on the dance floor.

Until this week, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was strongly opposed to pill testing, holding a no-tolerance for substance use view in how to tackle the war on drugs.

However the Liberal leader has now said they would be open to the policy if they were shown conclusive evidence it would save lives.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian during a press conference at Westmead Hospital where she was questioned about pill testing. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Two young men died over the New Year's party period - one at Beyond the Valley festival in Victoria and another at Lost Paradise Music Festival in NSW.

This led to New Zealand's Police Minister Stuart Nash to declare that he would like to see pill testing become the norm in his country.

New Zealand’s Police Minister Stuart Nash wants to see pill testing rolled out across the country. Picture: Getty

"You know, you had 20,000 young Kiwis party and have a really good time here. I would like to see drug testing at festivals. I think it saves lives, it save hospitalisations. And it's actually the right thing to do. And it's dealing with the reality in which we find ourselves," Mr Nash told TVNZ.

While New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has not responded to the comments yet, former NZ prime minister Helen Clark weighted in on Twitter showing her support.

She tweeted: "#Drugtesting has been saving lives at festivals, including in NZ where it's been a cost effective NGO initiative supported by @nzdrug & @KnowYourStuffNZ."

In September, Ms Berejiklian pulled together a pool of experts to look into musical festival safety after two other people died at Defqon. 1 in Sydney.

The panel was restricted from examining pill testing - which allows people to anonymously provide samples for forensic testing to determine what's in it.

A large crowd at the Grass is Greener music festival in Queensland. Picture: Brendan Radke

HOW PILL TESTING WORKS

The idea behind pill testing is to ensure the safest possible recreational drug use, not stopping it. It lets drug users know whether the drugs they are taking have been mixed with other chemicals. The main drugs that are tested are party drugs MDMA, ketamine and cocaine.

Last year a pill testing trial at Groovin The Moo in Canberra found potentially deadly pills and other drugs that had been cut with paint, toothpaste and artificial sweetener.

128 people opted to have their drugs tested at the time.

A crowd is seen cheering at Grooving the Moo in Adelaide, April 2018. Picture: AAP

The trial also successfully detected N-ethylpentylone 'bath salts' sold as MDMA. The drug is often used as a substitute and has been linked to mass-casualty overdoses and can cause psychosis and days of insomnia.

Drug information and testing provider KnowYourStuff NZ also said festival testing had shown about a quarter of drugs claimed to be MDMA (ecstasy) were not and most commonly showed up as N-ethylpentylone. The provider said the drug had showed up at every event they had pill tested at in New Zealand last summer (2018).

Further to this seven festivals in England had 'front of house' pill testing last summer and more than 8000 people came forward to have their drugs tested across the UK, according to the BBC.

WHY NZ IS OK WITH IT

These findings support what showed up for Stuart Nash earlier this week when he had a look at some of the pill testing results from New Zealand's Rhythm and Vines festival in Gisborne.

Police had intercepted drugs laced with pesticide at the festival ahead of New Year's Eve.

"What I did was I visited the Gisborne Police station and I had a look at the testing they were doing on some of the pills that had been confiscated. Some of them weren't even what people though they were buying. They thought they were buying MDMA, and one was full of sugar, another one was food colouring," Mr Nash said.

Ms Berejiklian has said NSW will consider pill testing but said she felt it gave drug users "a false sense of security".

NZ music festival organisers told local media they looked forward to government action on pill testing over there.

A Reddit user appeared to have worked as security/crowd control at Rhythm and Vines claimed "80 per cent of people buying drinks were on MDMA" at the event.

"I fully support testing on site to make things safer," they wrote.

Mr Nash told NZ Herald he wanted to see all festivals using drug testing kits by next summer and wanted to see a "more compassionate and restorative approach" when it comes to drug use.

Stuart Nash says pill testing is a safe option. Picture: Getty

The declaration has been welcomed by the NZ Drug Foundation as "fantastic news" but laws would need to be changed to eliminate legal risks for on-site testing at bigger events before pill testing became a regular occurrence in NZ.

Mr Nash said the NZ government work with independent organisations to run pill testing, it would not be done by police. However he said police would be required to work with event organisers to ensure the testing was safe.

FOCUS ON DEALERS

Mr Nash also said his stance on pill testing did not mean NZ police would be relaxing their view on organised crime.

He told Stuff.co.nz earlier this week that police would be upping their focus on drug imports and distribution.

"We know young people are taking them, so we have to be pragmatic about it and not bury our head in the sand.

"If someone is dealing they will be taken through the justice system. But if it was someone who has one or two pills, you don't want them to get a criminal record for a bad decision."

It makes more sense to treat the situation from a health perspective and let them know what's in the drugs, he said.

As New Zealand seems to be taking a step forward in pill testing and many of Europe's party destinations already well on their way to seeing success with it.

Queensland has said it will consider it with Liberal National Party MP Christian Rowan - an addiction medicine specialist - saying there was international evidence that pill testing had reduced harm.